One of the campsites that we tried to find after we came over the Shipka Pass was at Etara. This would have been very convenient as it was very close to the Etara Ethnographic Village Museum. The campsite no longer exists but the museum is still very much alive and working. We drove the 25km back to the museum today, stopping for much needed supplies of bread, milk, fruit, vegetables and meat on the way.
The museum was very impressive and very popular with the local Bulgarians. The village has been created from original buildings brought to the site from the local area, chosen to demonstrate local, industry, crafts and architecture. It is situated on a stream and there are many buildings that use water power: flour mill, fulling mill, braid making, wood turning, knife sharpening, carpet washing, sawmill. The craftsmen's houses and shops included a tannery, pottery, cutlery manufacture, furrier, cartwright, goat hair weaver, jeweller, baker, leather worker, herbalist, walnut oil production, carpenter making wooden musical instruments and traditional bagpipes. Craftsmen were present in most of these buildings demonstrating their crafts. Highlights for me were the man preparing the bagpipes by scraping the skin with a large double-handled curved blade and the ingenious spinning device used to spin goats hair thread. The woman held the goats hair in a pouch and attached two threads to a spindle and then started to walk backwards. She had attached herself to a rope that powered the spinning wheel as she walked, twisting the threads together.
For lunch we visited the baker and chose a flat bread that had been folded over and contained white, feta-like cheese and diced pepper. It was delicious but I have no idea what the Bulgarian name is for it. We followed that with some Bulgarian chocolate Halva from the cake shop and a Bulgarian coffee (like Greek / Turkish coffee) in the café.
We returned to the campsite and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Late in the afternoon, three men arrived and one of them came over and launched into a speech in Bulgarian. I said, “Sorry, we are English” (why do we always apologise?) and he immediately switched into English, saying that we should speak Bulgarian (no hope!) and then explained that he liked our motorhome. It turned out that he was born Bulgarian but his family had moved to Canada when he was very young.
The campsite was getting very busy with all of the chalets full and at least two groups of women had arrived in minibuses. One group started singing and dancing, which provided excellent entertainment.
Jane cooked dinner (Bulgarian spiral sausage) and we had just started to eat it when a thunderstorm came over and we had to rapidly retreat into the van. After the thunderstorm (and dinner) we re-emerged and the Canadian immediately accused of being a coward because I went inside when it poured with rain! He then invited us over for a drink and we were there until midnight!
Greg (the Canadian) was the only English speaker but acted as translator for his friends. They were from Southern Bulgaria in the Rodopi mountains, which they explained were very beautiful and well worth a visit (next time!). They put a Rodopi folk CD on their car stereo, which was very good, especially the bagpipes and it went well with the Bulgarian beer that I was drinking. Greg was also drinking beer but he explained that his friends were hardened drinkers – they were on home made Vodka. To our surprise, Greg told us that they were all archaeologists although I think that a better description may be 'traders in antiquities'. Once they discovered that we were interested in archaeology, they brought out a huge number of artefacts that they had with them. Having seen so many examples under glass in countless museums, it was fantastic to be able to hold and examine a huge range of objects from Roman fibulae to ancient Greek coins (including one from the reign of Alexander The Great), Byzantine rings, through to Second World War Nazi memorabilia. One fascinating (and, we were told, very valuable) object was a small knife carried by a Roman woman. It was extremely sharp, carried on a chain and secreted in her clothing. It was used for defence in case she was attacked and, Greg informed us, would easily penetrate the heart, brain or other part of the anatomy. The group were on their way to Veliko Turnovo (about 20km away) for a symposium, which starts at 07:00 tomorrow morning lasting for 2 to 3 hours followed, apparently, by a great deal of eating and drinking combined with a considerable amount of trading. It was approaching midnight, Greg's friends had consumed best part of 1.5 litres of Vodka but were both perfectly sober. Dimitri gave us his business card and offered to show us around the Rodopi Mountains and their archaeological sites when we next return. We would love to take him up on his offer. We decided that it was time to retire and we wished our friends well.
Photos: Etara Ethnographic Village; Making bagpipes; Spinning goat hair; Wood turning – the shaft is connected directly to a small water wheel.
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